World War I and the Lost Generation Theme Analysis

“Secrets” explores the far-reaching devastation of World War I, detailing the war’s repercussions not only for the generation that fought in it, but also for generations to follow. When the protagonist reads Aunt Mary’s letters, he realizes that she was in love with a soldier named John during the war, who later became a Catholic monk and changed his name to Brother Benignus. Having reached young adulthood during World War I, both Brother Benignus and Mary are members of what historians call the “Lost Generation,” and both are psychologically scarred by their experiences. The four letters the protagonist reads from John reveal that, like many other members of his generation, the horrors John experienced on the battlefield deeply transformed him. Although John seems hopeful about the future in the first letter the protagonist reads, by the third letter, he describes the horror and anguish of watching his fellow soldiers die, writing, “if I live through this experience, I will be a different person.” Thus, while he physically survived the war, he was so mentally altered by it that Mary implies that he was, in a sense, killed in the war. His name change to Brother Benignus once he was ordained further implies that the pre-war John symbolically died. Mary also suffered a huge loss, as she had to give up the future she had hoped for with John when he became a monk. Scarred by the trauma of this heartbreak, Aunt Mary seems to have spent the rest of her life trusting no one and “keep[ing] mostly to herself.” Mary and John’s failed romantic relationship therefore demonstrates the deep pain and isolation that many members of the Lost Generation carried with them for the rest of their lives.

The protagonist grows up amid the reverberations of this pain, demonstrating how, even two generations after the World War I, the devastation of the Lost Generation still echoes. Coming of age around Aunt Mary’s unspoken trauma, the young protagonist learns not to talk about his emotions. As a child, he clearly craves connection with his aunt, but she answers his questions with evasive statements or silence. He finally goes behind her back to read her letters, an invasion of privacy that angers her and only drives her further away. Having learned to repress his emotions, the protagonist carries his guilt about this incident silently, never talking to Aunt Mary or his mother about it. Unable to process his feelings with others, his shame over a childhood mistake continues to haunt him into young adulthood. The story’s last scene, in which the protagonist weeps alone, symbolizes his emotional isolation. Through both Aunt Mary and the protagonist’s silent pain, the story captures the intergenerational trauma of World War I.